


New Opportunity

by narukyuu



Series: Last Opportunity [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Torture, Injury, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, Last Opportunity epilogue, Panic Attacks, Prosthesis, Recovery, Snark buddies, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-19 02:12:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11303610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narukyuu/pseuds/narukyuu
Summary: An Epilogue for "Last Opportunity".Can Tony ever be Iron Man Again after what happened?





	New Opportunity

**Author's Note:**

> This gotten a little long and different in tone from "Last opportunity", So I decided to post it as a seperate work. I am not sure f it really stands on it's own, I tried to make it new-readers friendly but it's still an epilogue.
> 
> I want to thank everyone who read Last opportunity and commented and gave kudos, it was super encouraging and kept me writing this fic even when it got hard and emotionally draining. thank you, I really hope you've enjoyed and would like to read more from me in the future.  
> Please head to my tumblr @ http://narukyuu.tumblr.com/ if you wanna see cute cat pics and chat about Tony Stark and be friends. <3

Captain America fans were actually the worst.

Rhodey looked at the graffiti in disgust, it apparently was there for several days already, the picture of a demonic iron man crushing the Captain America shield. "Tony Stark hates America" it said in hot red letters, sprawled all over the mansion's once beautiful stone walls in clear distaste.

"Well, a week ago it was a portrait of me with Hitler's mustache, then someone on TV said I was homophobic for not returning Steve's sincere feelings." Tony had told him in disinterest when he asked him why he didn't hire anyone to clean up the walls, "If I clean it up today, something worse will just pop up tomorrow. It's a waste of time for the cleaning crew, I might as well pay them to do nothing at all." He raised his arm and inspected it carefully through a monocle magnifying lens, then sighed. "the color is all wrong…"

"You can't just let it stay there." Rhodey tried again, only to get a sad, bitter smile in return, not even directed at him but at the tray of tools sitting in front of Tony. It was a relief to see him working again, at least. But nothing else was improving much, and Tony, despite the respite he got from the fear and pain after he more or less annihilated Steve, was quickly sinking back into it as the attacks of the media against him were becoming more and more blunt.

"My mansion, I can do whatever I want" He mused as he peeled away the skin from his robotic arm, which was a disturbing sight to say the least. Rhodey did not look away. "Jarvis, try making it less pale? I'm not _that_ white."

If Jarvis could sigh, he probably would have. Instead he just affirmed his creator's whim with a bland voice before a device in the corner of the room beeped once and started printing the new type of skin.

"Tony-"

"Yes, Honeybear?" Tony's voice was poisonous honey, indicating firmly that the conversation had nowhere to advance to from that point.

Rhodey's shoulders slumped, he looked up at the ceiling, no answer coming through his lips, and then he went and sat next to Tony. they stared at each other for a few moments in silence before Rhodey reached to pull Tony into a hug, his hand stroking Tony's head slowly, at the rate of his escalated breathing against the skin of his shoulder. Tony inhaled sharply, his body tense under Rhodey's arms. Then he started shaking, his hands slowly falling to his sides as Rhodey felt the fabric of his sleeve turning dump, despite not hearing even the quietest sob passing Tony's lips.

Rhodey passed his fingers through Tony's soft hair, letting his body slump against the chair as their heartbeats began to sync and the shaking decreased. Tony made no sound, there was no need for him to do so.

"You don't deserve it." Rhodey whispered, "Tony, say it. You don't deserve any of the things he did to you, you don't deserve the things they say, you don't deserve to be miserable, you don't deserve to be hurt. Say it." The shaking took a turn for the worse. Tony made no sound, the metal skeleton of his hand clutched on the fabric of Rhodey's shirt, the cold touch of it passing through to chill his skin. "Tony…"

"They don't care, Rhodey, it doesn't matter." Finally came Tony's voice, clean of the tremble that still passed through his body, "I have nothing to offer them anymore, I can't fill the shoes of the man they used to like, my only worth now is as a sandbag to punch." He paused, his head raising under Rhodey's hand. "they will move on."

Rhodey's hand slipped away as Tony got up and walked towards the printer, crouching next to it to get a better look at the artificial skin it created.

"looking good, J…" he said, "think its cost effective enough to start mass production soon? Never mind, print and deliver samples to the September foundation, they'll find what to do with them."

Rhodey sighed and rolled his eyes, "see, that's honestly unsettling." He clapped his hand on Tony's shoulder, "You tell me you are only worth something as someone's punchbag, and in the same breath you send thousands of dollars' worth of tech that is going to change someone's life to a charity foundation." Tony's eyes, curiously watching Rhodey, now shifted to the side. "Listen. That's who you are, always been, I respect your willingness to kick yourself for everyone else's wellbeing. Wouldn't have become a soldier or a superhero if I couldn't emphasize with that state of mind. But I won't let you diminish this by doubting your self-worthiness. You are a good man, Tony, too good for any of them. And nothing that happened can change that."

Tony's lips quivered, only ever so slightly, Rhodey almost didn't notice. "I… Jim-"

"Yes, Tones?" Rhodey smirked at him, getting back the tiniest smile, barely a grimace, but he understood.

"If I call the cleaning company, it will just get uglier, tomorrow." Tony said quietly, looking uncomfortable, "You know I'm not frugal about anything, but-"

"Yeah, okay." Rhodey shrugged. "We'll just clean it up ourselves then." his smirk grown to a full shit eating grin when Tony's eyes snapped to meet his, he looked disgusted. Rhodey chuckled, "Give Dum-E a hose, you know you want to."

"I foresee the destruction of the entirety of Manhattan if we do that." Tony grumbled, the hint of a smile on his pouty lips. "Fine. But you are treating me to a cheeseburger after that."

"Sure, where's the nearest Burger-king?"

"A _real_ cheeseburger, Platypus. Dum-E, be a good boy and get cleaning supplies, okay?"

 

Giving Dum-E a hose was a _bad_ idea.

Tony and Rhodey entered the burger joint, entirely dripping wet and barely containing laughter as they saw the other patrons' expressions at their entrance. They were dirty, strokes of the color they used to paint over the remains of the offensive mural still smeared on their faces and clothes.

"We probably should have at least changed clothes." Rhodey said after they were sat down and offered menus, Tony declined his and asked for a cheeseburger and fries for both of them, shrugging at Rhodey's remark.

"I was too hungry." He said, winking at the waitress as Rhodey rolled his eyes, then smiled as he watched Tony strike up a conversation with the same waitress, nice, a bit too flirty to the point where he had to kick him under the table, so much like the old Tony.

The waitress smiled back, and it even appeared that she was genuinely enjoying Tony's babbled excitement over the conversation about her college classes.

When she left, Tony slumped tiredly into his chair, his energy finally depleted. He found his eyes and smiled. Tony looked back at him, puzzled.

"What?"

"It's nice finally seeing you interacting with humans." Rhodey laughed, taking in the sight of Tony's pouty lips turning pouty-er for a moment.

"I've been interacting with you for months, Rhodey. And unless you're actually a lizard person like Fox-News said, I think that counts."

"Nah, not really." Rhodey smiled at the waitress who brought their food. "Did you hear about Sam?"

Tony snagged a fry from Rhodey's plate despite having plenty on his own and nodded while wolfing it down. "The new Captain America, how could I not." he closed his eyes, "It's good, the world needs Captain America."

"The world could use some Iron man, too." Rhodey's voice turned quiet and soft. Tony's eyes were on the burger in his hand, unmoving, he stayed silent and still. Then, just as it seemed that he was going to answer, a little girl turned up next to their table.

"Mr. Iron man!" the girl nearly jumped at him in her excitement, causing Rhodey to chuckle behind his hand, Tony put down his burger and smiled at her, shooting a glare at Rhodey. The girl looked between them with a bright smile. "Mommy said- um… she said I can ask for an autograph? I really wanted a picture but she said not to bother you-"

"How about both?" Tony said, shrugging extravagantly and smiling at the excited girl, whose mother was coming closer to the table with an apologetic expression.

 "I'm so sorry, Mr. Stark! She run off when I told her we could ask for an autograph, I meant to bring her after you were done eating…"

Tony smiled at her, his hands were well hidden behind the desk, on his lap, But Rhodey already learned to notice the slight tremble of his shoulders, and the anxiousness creeping up his spine.

"Uh, maybe not a great time right now, Tony?" he said, putting his hand on Tony's arm, only to take it back when Tony turned to look at him in determination.

"War machine is camera-shy." He exclaimed, getting up. The girl giggled when Rhodey gave him an exasperated look. _"_ So how about your mom takes a couple of pictures so we can show him how fun this is."

The mom hurried to take out her phone while Tony lowered himself to one knee and let the girl hug him around the neck. She didn't notice the way his breath began to falter at the touch of her skin, and Tony was not going to stop the photoshoot just to take out his breathing apparatus in front of so many people. Rhodey pursed his lips, readily observing him.

However, there seemed to be no reason for concern, they took several pictures, each sillier than the one before. Rhodey joined them for the last one, where the girl had them both at her eye level, small arms wrapped around each of their necks as she smooched Tony's cheek while her mother took the picture.

"Thank you, Mr. Iron man, Mr. Machine!" she hugged both of them, "Next time can we take pictures with the armor? It's my favorite!"

Tony's smile wavered. "Next time." He said quietly, "Sure thing, kiddo. Next time."

As the mother and the cheerful, skipping girl walked away to sit back in their own sits, Tony sat back into his own chair. Staring blankly at the remains sitting on his plate, more than half a burger and a pile of fries. He didn't move to pick anything up, and as he watched him, Rhodey started to lose his own appetite.

"Want to head back?" he asked softly, Tony closed his eyes tightly, shook his head, stopped and nodded, standing up abruptly, his hand gripping on the damp fabric of Rhodey's shirt, almost as if afraid that he will be gone if he did not hold on to him.

The walk home was quiet, no words were said between them, though Tony was mumbling something under his breath, a chain of intangible words said with frustration that seemed to latch onto Tony's mind like a blood-sucking flea.

Tony was at war with himself. The girl, in her innocent demand that Tony appeared wearing his armor the next time they met, which probably was not going to happen at all, spurred a dormant battle between the part of him who knew that Iron man was not yet obsolete - that he was still needed, and the part that was afraid, afraid to fail, to find out that he truly could not wear that armor again. Rhodey was well acquainted with both sides, and wasn't very sure which he believed was better.

Getting back to the mansion, they surprised a pack of three hooded teenagers who were climbing over the fence. Tony stood back as Rhodey chased, then caught one of the teenagers, the others passing by him unhindered, not skipping the chance to make an obscene gesture at him, which Tony rolled his eyes at as he moved to where Rhodey was sitting on the third kid's back, holding one of his arms in a lockdown, both he and the kid were breathing hard, somehow, Rhodey less so.

From the corner of his eyes Tony saw the wall he and Rhodey had just hours ago finished repainting, now adorning another mural, this time of two bloodied Iron man gauntlets tearing apart the Avengers Logo.

He picked a backpack the kid dropped when he was running, inside were several cans of spray color and a sketchbook, he flipped through it as Rhodey got up and forced the sullen boy to do so as well, he gave them both the stink-eye. "Thief! Give it back! It's mine!" He struggled to get out of Rhodey's firm grip with no success. Tony paid him no heed as he kept flipping through the sketches.

"Those are pretty good." He remarked, smirking and handing Rhodey the book. "I wish the ones you put on my wall were as nice."

The boy snorted and managed to snipe away his book, hugging it close to his chest.

Rhodey took out his cellphone, feeling the boy tense under his hand. He looked at Tony, who looked pretty bored. "So, police?"

Tony raised his head to look at him, looking surprised. "Honey-bear, I know it's been long since college and you are too old to remember, but you were a teenager once. And have done a lot worse."

He looked so full of himself, the tremble in his tone was nearly undetectable.

"So, what, just let him go?" he put more weight in his grip, just in case the kid decided to try running away again.

Tony shrugged. "Jeremy's face is documented on Jarvis' servers, so we might as well. If he really causes any more trouble you can always call his mother." The boy's face lost all of its color at once, and he didn't move even when Rhodey let go of his shoulder.

"I- uh, Please don't tell my mom." The boy blurted, looking up at them with big eyes. Rhodey smiled at him and nodded in the direction of the new mural.

"Get your friends and clean that up, and I'll consider it."

As the kid ran off to call his friends, Rhodey looked at Tony who started heading inside. "You knew who they were, didn't you?" Tony just shrugged again, "and you just let them destroy your walls over and over again?"

"I also put some money aside for when they're old enough for art-school." Tony said, strolling down the entrance hall, "you have to admit, they are awfully talented."

"They are- that's not the point!" Rhodey followed him all the way to the lab, where Tony proceeded to take off the artificial skin, then started prodding at the skeletal hand under with a screwdriver. "Why are you letting people do that?! You keep… you keep letting people walk all over you, demand things from you they have no business demanding, ruining your-"

"Property, things… that's all it is, Platypus. Just things." He clenched his fingers, "nothing they can do will hurt me, not like I hurt the world by taking away it's heroes."

Rhodey could scream, he nearly did, but settled on a long, loud groan instead. "I kind of hate you right now. I truly do. You're insufferable." He said, moving to snatch the screwdriver from his friend hand. "You protected yourself, you have proof that you did, Tony. he was not a hero long before you destabilized the serum, and he will never be again-"

A sound very much like an explosion sounded, followed by both Tony and Rhodey being flung across the room because of the blast.

"Sir… Colonel, there appears to be a breach." Jarvis said a moment later, addressing the two buried under rubble and dust. Tony broke out first, gasping for breath before Rhodey joined, bleeding heavily from a scratch over his brow. He hurried to Tony's side, ignoring the A.I, and stumbled just as he neared Tony enough for him to catch him as he fell.

"Hey, hey!" Tony sat him down, finding Rhodey's wondering, frantic eyes that didn't quite manage to settle on him. "Look at me! I'm here, I'm ok.  Can you tell me your name?" Tony breathed heavily, his device was nowhere to be found and he had no time to think about it as he inhaled the dust infused air and tried to stop the bleeding from his best friend's head.

Rhodey blinked at him, "Tony- I…"

"No, no honeybear, that's my name. tell me yours."

Rhodey sighed. "James Rhodes, Colonel in the USAF, you are holding up three fingers."

"Correct, correct, and stop being an asshole." Tony smiled as he looked around at the tarnished lab. One of the walls was blown away completely.

"Jarvis?"

"Sir, according to police records, the intruders are a gang named "The Wrecking crew", started off as a cleaning service after the battle of New York, they have in their possession equipment from the latest invasion."

"No wonder they could cause this much damage-" Rhodey groaned as Tony slowly dabbed the wound on his forehead with a nearly clean damp cloth. "Ow! Tones, I can really do this myself."

"You are allowed to fuss over me for months and you don't give me five minutes to do the same for you, that hurts, Jim."

Rhodey snatched the cloth from his hand and rolled his eyes as he put it against his head, only wincing a little, "Why the fuck would those guys come here?"

"Trying to prove themselves as the meanest around by attacking an ex-Avenger?" Tony smiled, barely suppressing the shivers of panic, he blinked a few times to get the dust and tears that threatened to leave his eyes as it intensified, "That, or the potential treasures of the Stark manor... they probably don't even know we are here, they'll leave soon."

Rhodey leaned against an upturned table, his eyes rolling up in pain and sudden exhaustion. "Tony… those kids, they were cleaning the wall."

Tony froze, looking beyond Rhodey at the crumbling wall. There was another explosion, a bit farther away now. "N-no. they weren't, right? He was still gone when we went inside… he probably never came back." Desperation intensified in both his voice and his eyes, Rhodey made the motion to get up.

"I'll get… War Machine." He said before stumbling again, groaning in pain. "Shit…"

It became even harder to breath for Tony. He reached to his pocket before he remembered that he lost his device somewhere, and a small hiccup escaped his throat as he tried to calm himself down. There are people, innocent kids in danger, Rhodey is in danger. He can't panic now.

He gets up and ignores Rhodey as he asks him what he is doing, telling him to stay down, to help him get up so he can find War Machine and fight. Even injured, bleeding from a head injury, Rhodey is worried about him.

"Jarvis… I…" Tony bit his lip, looking around him slowly. "I need a suit."

Jarvis remans quiet for a moment, when he talks, his voice is jittery, his systems harmed by the blast.

"I have alerted…"

"Jarvis."

The A.I. quietened, "Mark Fifty one is on its way, sir. It is the armor you designed before-"

Tony didn't stay in the lab to hear the rest of that sentence. It was the armor he designed before Steve killed him. It wasn't finished yet, Jarvis was not fully integrated into it because he didn't have the time to do it before the invasion, and after… after he couldn't.

He run out, ignoring the shouts from Rhodey behind him, and Jarvis' voice following through the hallways. He flexed his metallic hand's fingers in a set of pre-programmed motions, feeling its core heating up. There were shouts from the outside, and sirens. Tony thought he could hear someone crying.

The walls shook as another explosion was heard, Tony also heard more screams.

If the Avengers were still a team – if Steve was… if he just…

He stopped running when he arrived at the door, in front of him stood four tall men, tall and wide and holding massive weapon in their arms. They stood with their backs to him, silhouettes in the cloud of dust that covered the hallway.

One of them turned, and through the mist Tony could barely make out his face, he was smiling, grinning maniacally when he spotted him. "Hey! Look who finally decided to leave his little panic room!" he called, and the others turned as well. "Say, Stark, how about you tell us where your vault is and open it for us, huh? We promise not to ruin your pretty little mansion anymore, maybe we'll even let you suck our dicks, later."

Tony stayed frozen where he stood, staring at them quietly before his mind cleared just enough to realize his predicament. He frowned at them. "Uh, vault? You people are obviously idiots, dressed like you are-" their smiles changed into frowns at once. "anything valuable my parents had was moved to storage, the most you are going to find here are nostalgic family albums." Breath in, exhale, relax. He closed his eyes. His hand was scorching hot already, he just needed to take a shot.

What if they overpowered him? What if they manage to disable his hand and stop the armor from getting to him? What if they force him down on his knees and—

"Bullshit, Stark. We know you have valuables laying around, your technology alone is worth thousands in the black market." One of them, a different person, said. Tony didn't really try to tell them apart. He couldn't concentrate on it, not when people outside needed his help. "So why don't you…"

Tony raised his arms and shot the talking one once, knocking him back.

The others looked at him in surprise, then anger, then they started walking towards him, raising their weapons.

Tony breathed heavily, the arc reactor core needed to recharge and he had no time, they were coming closer…

"Pathetic, that's what you are. You don't even have your armor, Stark, all your super-friends are not going to help you, Captain America is not going to save your ass after what you did to him-" again his arm rose and shot, another one of them knocked back as the first one started getting up, just barely. It wasn't enough, it wasn't enough. It wasn't designed for combat.

In the back of his head Tony heard screaming and crying, and he wasn't even sure anymore who those belonged to. He had to help them, he had to help the kids, he had to get back to Rhodey.

Tony stepped back as they were getting closer to him, the core inside his hand was starting to heat up again, but not fast enough. "everyone will know how much of a coward you really are, once we are through with you-"

Breath, slowly… relax.

One of them reached to grab his arm, only to then be knocked aside by a flash of red and gold that burst through the door. The suit enveloped Tony before he managed to process the information of its arrival, the blinking into life HUD hurt his unaccustomed eyes as it came online, and the metal felt heavier than he remembered.

Panic flooded him.

How could he ever have loved being enclosed in such a small space? How could he not see before how restrictive and heavy and dark it was inside his armors? Tony's breath hitched as he fell to his knees, the metal plates of the suit clanking against the floor with a horrible noise.

He had to get out of there, he had to breath… red lights flashed on the HUD, and Tony closed his eyes tightly to avoid the flashing lights -  then, suddenly, he could breathe again.

Tony opened his eyes, the red lights turned a soft cyan, and on the periphery of his vision he could see a gauge indicating oxygen levels raising. He also realized that he was no longer inside the mansion, instead, he was outside, flying high above the mansion and, to his surprise – holding two members of the wrecking crew from their collars in each hand. They were shrieking and shouting in fear for him to put them down, that they were sorry.

"…Jarvis?" Tony whispered, but got no answer. The AI could direct the suit's auto-pilot to get it to Tony's location, but he was not integrated with its systems enough to actually pilot it. Tony breathed in slowly, he felt the crew members struggling in his hand and smirked as he motioned the suit to fly even higher. Somehow, suddenly, it came so naturally. He thought he'd stopped being smart and intuitive enough, he thought he would never fly again… but he was doing it. He was really doing it. And it was so _easy_ …

"I thought you said he wasn't Iron Man anymore!" One of the thugs yelled, then shrieked as Tony purposefully laxed his grip on his collar.

"Nobody seen him wearing a freaking armor in a year! Of course that would be the conclusion!!! Shit, Shit, Mr. Stark, Sir, please let us down, I'm afraid of heights!"

Tony chuckled but didn't answer, he swirled through the air once more, looking down at the mansion, and the city, and the people… he zoomed in to see Rhodey getting out of the rubble of his mansion looking up at him with a worried, always worried expression, that soon changed into a huge grin, and several people in the crowd cheering and waving at him, and no, he definitely was _not_ crying. Another review of the crowd found him the three artsy kids, safe and sound and cheering as well. It was then that he made one final showy swirl through the air before flying down to hand the villainous group to the police, laughing and cheering himself at the newly appreciated shot of adrenaline and taste of freedom that piloting the suit brought him, before – and now, again.

He could be Iron man again.

He never really stopped.

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
